i am a universally unrecognised critic.
when it comes to cinema, i have taken no courses, cannot write thesis on the brilliance of allen, or even of the latest star wars film (mainly because i don’t want to see it.) but i DO have quite definite opinions on lots of movies, and am stunned at how often people disagree with me. you would think my parents (who are at least partially via nature and nuture) for my funny bone, would side with me re: brilliant movies. only sometimes.
in 2000, i told my parents that they had to see magnolia. the cast brilliant, the plots clever, the dialogue concise and so evident of pain. did i mention the cast? everyone i love was in that movie. and i’m no huge tom cruise fan, but he was AMAZING. all the movie needed was mark ruffalo and cate blanchett and it would have been perfection. my parents hated it. and while critics generally gave it good reviews with a few proviso’s, none of my friends liked it either. magnificent liked it enough to buy me the DVD.
RUSHMORE. bill murray! olivia williams! excellence! not according to my parents, who stopped watching halfway through. that should be illegal.
GROUNDHOG DAY – bill murray! critics didn’t start liking this film until a few years ago, when the big zen movement pushed it to popularity. huh. some of us liked it in the 1980’s.
CURDLED – this 1999 gem was a spin off from pulp fiction. do you remember when bruce willis leaves the fight and jumps into a cab? the blood enthusiastic taxi driver? well, tarantino made a film around her obsession…and it was brilliant. and no critic or parent or friend agreed with me.
PLEASANTVILLE – reece and toby, really before either of them hit it big. william h macy deserves any exclamation point i put after his name…!!!!!!! and joan allen!! don knotts put in a cameo. how could it not be an excellent film. beautiful cinematography. critics generally gave it good reviews but slammed it for being too obvious with the message, but i loved it. william – i’ll make you dinner.
finally, two movies my parents and i can agree on (magnificent refuses to get drawn into the discussion): we loved ISHTAR and THE THREE AMIGOS. i’m not going to defend these movies, i thought they were brilliant. they always make me happy.
YOU CAN COUNT ON ME, MARVIN’S ROOM, BULWORTH (lots of b’s!), ONE THOUSAND MILES, BOWFINGER!, THE THREE SEASONS, MARS ATTACKS, BEFORE SUNRISE/SUNSET, AMISTAD, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, JACKIE BROWN…and this isn’t even touching pre-1990.
it seems not a lot of people have seen these movies. and these are movies really worth seeing, in this critical opinion.
then, we watch THE RETURN OF THE KING, which collected enough academy awards to outweight a hobbit; and at the end of the three hour plus movie, i am thinking,
if they had let me into the editing room, i could have shaved this baby down to a cool 2 hours. if that. i also was pretty unimpressed with frodo…did he do anything more than make bad judgements, faint and whinge about his destiny? samwise, you should have hung out with the cool group. and that blonde chick hitting on aragon. not cool, baby. liv tyler is a big favourite of magnificent charles’, he wasn’t impressed.
